Patrick Murphy on War & Peace

Democrat

Pursue Al Qaeda, but get troops out of Afghanistan

We absolutely had to go after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after 9/11, and our troops have and continue to serve admirably. However, the mission has changed--and our ability to pay for it has
changed.

Our troops began a phased withdrawal and are scheduled to be fully out of Afghanistan by 2014.
Between now and 2014, we need to do everything we can to stabilize and rebuild the country, giving them the best chance to build on the opportunity our soldiers have fought for.

We should relentlessly pursue Al Qaeda. If we have intelligence as to
where Al Qaeda or terrorists with any capability to attack us are--we should take swift and decisive military action, but we don't need to have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan to achieve this goal.

Immediate military action if Iran attacks Israel

Iran must cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, their direct threats to destroy Israel, and their threats to interrupt shipping channels and the flow and production of oil critical to our economy.

There is absolutely no question that if Iran attacks the United States or Israel, or if it is certain that such an attack is imminent, that we must take immediate and devastating military action. Additionally, we must utilize every option to prevent them
from gaining nuclear weapons. In the meantime, we must continue to put intense economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime to move them to more normalized relations with the world and their neighbors.

There will certainly be massive changes in
Iran in the coming years--and while we should be ready to protect our interests, we should recognize that it's the regime, not the people, who are driving most of the radical policies.